Playing in Ireland for the first time while on a second trip this side of the Atlantic Annie Keating was booked into the beautiful Whale Theatre, an intimate venue in the seaside town of Greystones, has all the hallmarks of the perfect setting for her talents. This tour of England and Ireland saw Annie accompanied by a really great trio of musicians in order to augment her superbly crafted songs and to provide a live performance dynamic beyond what a solo show could offer. The level of stage craft and the interplay between the musicians was a real highlight on this night of absorbing music.
Annie played two separate sets, allowing the attentive audience to refill their drinks and to visit her well stocked merch table, containing all her album releases, a tour programme and t-shirts. She has always been a gifted songwriter and seeing Annie play live confirms what a superb performer she is too. Always leading from the front with her energy and enthusiasm, she is also a natural storyteller, something that will endear her to an Irish audience, and she regaled us with tales of the songs, their inspiration and the manner in which they were created. We get plenty of insight into the writing process during Covid that led to the fifteen songs that became her latest release, Bristol County Tides, where an intended three week stay with her family during lockdown turned into a six-month period of reflection and taking stock.
Delighted to be back out on the road, this Massachusetts-born, Brooklyn resident exudes a self confidence and swagger that was infectious and had the audience engaged with her songs from the very start. Her songs can be from a deeply personal space or populated by characters she has encountered along the way. Her onstage presence has something of the swagger of Bonnie Raitt and her vocal tone has similar qualities to that of Mary Gauthier – leading the band with both inner confidence and outer bravado. Annie thanked the crowd for their generous response, noting that her body of work may be largely unknown in this part of the world, but the listening room impressed her as she confirmed this is not something she expects when playing back home in America, where the crowds tend to be noisier and not as attentive.
Drawing on material from her latest album, with five tracks, Annie also delved into her past and featured a further five songs from her 2008 release, Belmont. A further eight songs are included in her generous set and they included tracks from three additional albums, together with two new songs from her new project, Twenty 22 Tour EP, an eight-track production of unreleased songs, available only at her live shows. A further song, co-written with the superb Lynne Hanson, is also given a test run and the rocking Lies and Dynamite was certainly well received by the enthusiastic crowd.
Indeed, the presence of a drummer on this tour gives Annie licence to really rock it up and there were plenty of highlights throughout the set where the band really take everything into overdrive. Joe Coombs on guitars is a very gifted musician and his lyrical playing complimented the song arrangements beautifully as he weaved around the melodies with economy and precision. The impressively tight rhythm section of Scott Warman (electric and double bass) and Jamie Dawson (drums) provided the power that fuels the performance and their subtle playing was the bedrock of the show. All three musicians played with a finely honed understanding of the song structures, and the dynamic in their delivery was all the more rewarding when they decided to stretch out and raise the temperature on occasions, such as the up-tempo workouts of On the Road By Ten, Hank’s Saloon, Storm Warning, Marigold and On the Loose.
Annie showed her more reflective side and thoughtful insights on songs like It Already Hurts When You Leave, For the Taking, Belmont and Kindred Spirit. Joe Coombs exceled with bottleneck guitar on both Third Street and Valentine and the tribute to John Prine on the encore song, Angel From Montgomery, was a perfect way to bring this excellent show to a satisfactory conclusion.
The Whale Theatre, which opened in 2017, is a beautiful venue with superb acoustics and Annie Keating certainly grasped her opportunity to leave an indelible mark on the audience with this very accomplished, assured and impressive debut performance. Until the next time, Annie…!
Review by Paul McGee Photography by Declan Culliton